Cake Bake

Leia chose baking a cake over going to the movies today

so when my 25+ year old stand mixer gave out*

 Hiding Groot is one of the girls’  favorite kitchen games

we had to make an emergency Target run for a new hand-mixer.

Leia loves her new toy mixer and the cake seemed to meet everyone’s expectations. Looking on the bright side, maybe I’ll get myself a pretty red mixer to replace Old Faithful. 

* The motor is still good but the beaters no longer lock in place, which seems like a recipe for disaster (ha! baking joke😜). I’m bummed; I love that mixer. 

Victory!

The plan seemed simple enough. Combine this fabric

and this block design

to make a quick(ish), stash-busting quilt. 

First I sewed the pieces together backwards. Or sideways. Or something. Not right, at any rate.

Didn’t notice and made two more blocks.

Put them together on the design wall and thought, “hmmm, that’s odd”. Looked at the original pattern again and said multiple combinations of not-nice words. Loudly.

I really, really didn’t want to rip out the finished blocks. Tried turning them this way - nope -

and this way - still no -

and finally, this way. Victory!

I love it when a plan (finally) comes together. 

Paint Night

It took us a couple of months, 

but we finally found a date - 

and a class everyone liked - 

for our first family and friends paint night. 

 Yummmm, chocolate lava cake too!

The paintings are awful were awfully fun to do.

The instructor walked us step by step through the process

 Naia practicing proper tongue placement

and after two hours of intense concentration 

we each had a finished “masterpiece”. 

We had a great time, adults and kids alike.

Not sure what we’ll do with our paintings 

but we need to figure something out since we all want to do this again.

Good Grief

“He’s touching me!!”

One of every parents my very favorite things to hear (not!). Two minutes later they were happily playing together again. 

My Newest Model

The tradition continues - 

Donovan is just as fascinated by things he shouldn’t walk on new quilts as the grandgirls were. 

This had no sooner hit the floor for its photo op then he was running for it. 

Didn’t he do a nice job for his first gig? Maybe next time we can get him to wipe his shoes off first . . .

Squirmy Baby Book Club

Donovan came for a visit so mama could get her new crown (not the sparkly kind, unfortunately) 

 Bowls make great hats

and supervised while Leia and Jac made cookies.

Or, as really happened, Leia made cookies while Jac made a mess with eggs, water and various seasonings. 

Jac was happy so it’s all good, right? (I think I finally got all the spillage off of, and out of,  the cabinets and drawers . . .)

The highlight of the day, by far, was Leia attempting to read to these little squirm worms. Not sure how much reading got done, but the giggles were contagious. 

Tula Nova Progress

Making progress on Tula Nova, the English paper-piecing project I started in Tula Pink’s workshop a few weeks ago.

The Round 5 stars are sewn on and the next round’s diamonds are prepped and ready to go. 

I’m determined to work with the fabric I have on hand, so most of this is from Tula’s “Zuma” line. I couldn’t resist adding in the Fairy Dust birds from Pinkerville (above),

and the sea serpent, swan and unicorn left over from my “Shoreline” quilt.  

Only 2 rounds to go after this. I’ll probably use the waves or jellies from Zuma next but I’m still undecided on the final row. Also can’t make up my mind if I like the pink star or if it’s too distracting. Opinions?

Grandma’s Rainbow

The first time Jackie saw my latest project on the design wall, her eyes went big and she whispered “Grandma’s rainbow!”’

Each of the strips above opens into two different shades.

I’ve been sewing them two-by-two, then four-by-four,

and eight-by-10,

until I had all 40 in rainbow order. Tomorrow (I hope) I’ll cut this up, add and flip and sew it together again. Crossing fingers I can cut a straight edge down that long side . . . 

Dress Up Princess

Jac had her first dress up day with Sissy - 

can you tell she loved it??

So much excitement.

Jac’s finally tall enough to wear the smallest size 

of the million-and-one princess dresses 

we’ve accumulated over the years, 

but she still needs a bit of help getting the top to stay up. 

Leanne’s creative solution was brilliant.